Local Lynx No. 150 - June/July 2023

TALES FROM THE RIVERBANK
Firstly, a trout update. On 12th March, my first
sighting this year, and all the sweeter for being in
cloudy water and earlier that morning having seen two
cormorants feeding in the river. Over the following days
the water cleared, and more sightings ensued, but
noticeably less fish than last year, and at the time of
writing in late April very little insect feeding by fish at
the surface. Based on trout eggs spawning in February
there should be more young around and visible, so I am
worried. I haven’t seen any large trout either.
Populations do ebb and flow so hopefully there are
enough around to sustain our river. I did see a little
shoal of four tiny fish feeding at the water’s edge. It is
difficult to identify what species these fry are when they
are by nature, so small.
Later in March I spotted an elver swimming
upstream, about 25cm long. I am always fascinated by
the life cycle of the eel and thinking about the huge
journey already undertaken by this little creature is
breath-taking. It will have started its journey 6500km
away in the Sargasso Sea, where it travelled across the
Atlantic as a larvae, grown into a little glass eel then
become an elver as it enters our river system. This is a
good sign for river health, although there are some algae
clumps about which is indicative of high nutrient levels.
Only a test would uncover if this assumption is true and
I’m making enquiries in that regard with help from the
relevant agencies.
Lots of creatures are pairing up in their various
ways. The hares around Damson Lane have been
particularly busy, with a group of twelve sighted one
morning all chasing each other about. A male wren has
been building a nest in the base of the Alder tree across
the river, one of several he will build, with the best
selected by his mate. He sings from a high branch to
attract her to his work, an incredibly loud call for such a
small bird.
I saw my first house martin on 11th April, quickly
followed by some swallows. They, like so many of our
wildlife visitors, have undertaken huge journeys to get
here. They will nest and breed in the village over the
coming weeks, and they particularly like feeding on the
insect blooms over the river valley. Summer is
definitely on its way when their aerial acrobatics start.
A couple of the female Mallards have had their first
ducklings and I witnessed a Mrs Duck very firmly
reprimanding Mr Duck for getting too close to them.
The ducklings are very vulnerable of course, and
unfortunately many don’t make it to adulthood. I’m
amazed how quick they are across the water and its
surprising anything can catch them, but lots disappear
despite Mum’s efforts. They have been using our bank
as a sanctuary which is lovely to see and probably our
cutest visitors of the year. Keeping the grass long at the
water’s edge, together with some other plants coming
through, is giving them and a few other species (e.g.
water voles) a bit more welcome cover.
Martin Williams
NORTH NORFOLK BOOK WORMS
Stiffkey Book Worms March and April Reviews
The books reviewed by the Stiffkey Bookworms are
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) by Agatha
Christie and Lessons in Chemistry (2022) by Bonnie
Garmus.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has previously been
voted by the British Crime Writers Association as the
best crime novel ever. It features the famous Belgian
detective Hercule Poirot and mainly
because of the ending, it stands out
as one of her most extraordinary.
Christie’s writing leaves the reader
guessing until the very end as to the
killer’s identity. When it is revealed,
you find yourself rereading passages
to discover the answer was in front
of you all along. The narrator is Dr
Sheppard who meets his friend
Roger Ackroyd for supper then later
that evening Ackroyd is found murdered. The plot
contains blackmail, forced marriages and the usual array
of suspects that Christie crafts within a small English
village. The novel is a masterclass in detective writing
and Poirot excels as the eccentric, genius detective.
There is more humour in this book than in later novels
and we found the passage when Dr Sheppard discusses
with his sister that Poirot must be a dapper London
hairdresser.
Several in our group had never read an Agatha
Christie before and felt they enjoyed it more because of
that fact. We were all appreciative of the skill involved
in crafting deceptively simple plots, which are in fact
complex and full of red herrings. The characters are of
their time – plain, simple souls as the parlour maid or
the bumbling retired colonel. A couple of members
found it hard to differentiate between characters or that
the characterisation was not full enough to be satisfying.
Bookworm score 4/5.
Lessons in Chemistry is Bonnie Garmus’s debut
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